Reviewed by Valerie

TITLE:  Tempted

SERIES:  Firsts and Forever Stories #3

AUTHOR:  Alexa Land

PUBLISHER:  Self-Published

LENGTH:  187 pages

RELEASE DATE:  September 26, 2021

BLURB:

I’ve been in love with my older brother’s best friend for most of my life. Now I’m a rent boy, and he’s a cop.

Not that I stood a chance with him anyway. He’s straight—or so I thought, until I caught him looking at me like I was too tempting to resist.

He considers me strictly off-limits though, so can I convince him to give in to temptation? And if he does will we be able to build something real, when all the cards seem stacked against us?

REVIEW:

A sex shop called Buckingham Phallus! I just can’t. I’m dying. This might be the funniest thing I’ve read in an Alexa Land novel, and that’s saying a lot for the Queen of Peen. The world will be a sadder place if Ms. Land ever runs out of dick humor.

Tempted is a darling, friends to lovers, brother’s best friend romance between a prostitute and a straight-laced, straight-oriented, law-abiding police officer. It’s a delicious slow burn as they become carnally acquainted.

We met Seth in Kept Man when he reached out to Jasper for advice on how to be an escort. Now he’s been turning tricks for six months as a way to make a quick buck so he can get his own apartment separate from his older brother, Casey, and Casey’s childhood best friend, Eden. At twenty-five, Seth feels he needs to finally stand on his own two feet, and more importantly, put some distance between himself and Eden, who he has secretly loved for an agonizing fifteen years. It will also make it easier to maintain secrecy about his prostitution without constantly lying.

Eden has a very strong personal code of conduct. He finds out about Seth’s choice of profession in an unexpected way, and when he does, he’s devastated – both angry and disappointed. He always saw himself as Seth’s protector and he chastises himself for not keeping his younger friend safe. Seth is devastated, too. He lives with the pain of loneliness. His father called him dumb and weak, his high school friends dumped him for being gay, and his football coach said he wasn’t good enough. Now he feels the inevitable loss of Eden. But this is a romance so of course they fall in love, and there are several small twists and surprises along the way.

If you follow my reviews you know by now that I’m a sucker for the perfect, passionate, first kiss, and not any old kiss will do. It needs to be the culmination of building desire that can’t be expressed with words. It needs to make my toes curl, and Seth and Eden achieve that.

“Everything hung in the balance. It felt as if time had become elastic, and that moment stretched out as anticipation crackled between us. We both knew our relationship was about to change forever, in ways we couldn’t begin to predict.”

Follow that up with panty-melting sex in bed, bent over a boulder, by a river in broad daylight…  And don’t get me started on the sex toys! Eden is a very eager and willing student of Seth’s show and tell. Gah!

I like how the men slide smoothly into a sexual relationship even though Eden has heretofore identified as straight. It’s refreshing when a bi- or gay-awakening (or in this case, demisexual) isn’t accompanied by page after page of angst over one’s shift in sexual orientation. This might be due to the level of trust the men already have in each other. The ease with which Eden acquiesces to his attraction to Seth is a welcome change of pace and maintains the author’s lighter tone.

Tempted contains the always entertaining visit to Nana D’s abode and the requisite Humpington trolling with Darwin and Josh. There’s just enough of a found family vibe from the time spent with Nana and Co to maintain a connection to the original Firsts and Forever series without duplicating that formula. This newer series sets itself apart through the use of insulated settings which allows the budding relationships to grow intimate more quickly. It’s like being cocooned on a honeymoon, first in French Polynesia in The Pretenders and then holed up in Micah’s house in Kept Man. This time, the story begins in San Francisco but is in large part set in a remote rental cabin well off the beaten track in Utah.

Seth and Eden are both highly likable characters, and they’re supported with great performances by Casey and Eden’s elderly but young at heart grandfather, George. What a delightfully sweet and comical character. The next most prominent character might be Bernice the frankencar.

Seth says he finds comfort and familiarity with Eden. That’s what you’ll find in Tempted – a comfort book with the familiarity of Ms. Land’s quaint mix of humor, heartwarming feels, and characters that always shine brightly.

RATING:

BUY LINK: 

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